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Cited by 67Language Development and DisordersReading and Literacy DevelopmentNeurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Phonological and morphophonological effects on grammatical development in children with Specific Language Impairment

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Tomas, Ekaterina, Demuth, Katherine, Smith‐Lock, Karen M., Petocz, Peter·2015·International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders
DOI 10.1111/1460-6984.12152PMC PMC4496274
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Abstract

Background: Five‐year‐olds with specific language impairment (SLI) often struggle with mastering grammatical morphemes. It has been proposed that verbal morphology is particularly problematic in this respect. Previous research has also shown that in young typically developing children grammatical markers appear later in more phonologically challenging contexts. Aims: The main aim was to explore whether grammatical deficits in children with SLI are morphosyntactic in nature, or whether phonological factors also explain some of the variability in morpheme production. The analysis considered the effects of the same phonological factors on the production of three different morphemes: two verbal (past tense ‐ed; third‐person singular ‐s) and one nominal morpheme (possessive ‐s). Methods & Procedures: The participants were 30 children with SLI (21 boys) aged 4;6–5;11 years (mean = 5;1). The data were collected during grammar test sessions, which consisted of question/answer elicitations of target forms involving picture props. A total of 2301 items were analysed using binary logistic regression; the predictors included: (1) utterance position of the target word, (2) phonological complexity of its coda, (3) voicing of the final stem consonant, (4) syllabicity (allomorph type) and (5) participant accounting for the individual differences in the responses. Outcomes & Results: The results showed a robust effect of syllabicity on the correct morpheme production. Specifically, syllabic allomorphs (e.g., She dress es) were significantly more challenging than the segmental ones (e.g., He run s) for all three morphemes. The effects of other factors were observed only for a single morpheme: coda complexity and voicing helped explain variability in past tense production, and utterance position significantly affected children's performance with the possessive. The participant factor also had a significant effect, indicating high within‐group variability ‐ often observed in SLI population. Conclusions & Implications: The systematic effect of syllabicity across both verbal and nominal morphemes suggests morphophonological influences in the grammatical development of children with SLI that cannot be fully explained by syntactic deficits. Poorer performance in producing syllabic allomorphs can be accounted for by much lower overall frequency of these forms, and by the ‘tongue‐twisting’ effect of producing similar segments in succession, as in added [æ d ə d], washes [wɒ ʃ ə z]. Interestingly, the greater acoustic salience of the syllabic allomorphs (an extra syllable) does not enhance children's abilities to produce them. These findings suggest that the interconnections between different levels of language have a stronger effect on the grammatical development of children with SLI than might be expected. Allomorphy should, therefore, be taken into account when designing language assessments and speech therapy, ensuring that children receive sufficient practice with the entire set of allomorphic variants.

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  • Non-linguistic abilities (e.g., sound discrimination, expressive prosody, phonological working memory, associative learning, executive skills) may significantly contribute to children's linguistic difficulties.

    “The assessment should also be extended to non-linguistic abilities (e.g., sound discrimination, expressive prosody, phonological working memory, associative learning, executive skills) that may significantly contribute to children’s linguistic difficulties [90,91,92,93,94].”

    From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [92]

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  1. [4]BISHOP D NORBURY CF Thapar A Rutter M Bishop D Pine D Scott SM Stevenson J Taylor E 2008 Speech and language impairments Rutter’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Oxford Wiley-Blackwell 782 801
  2. [38]WECHSLER D 2002 Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of IntelligenceTM — Third Edition (WPPSITM – III) Sydney, NSW Pearson
  3. [39]WEXLER K Lightfoot D Hornstein N 1994 Optional infinitives, head movement and the economy of derivations Verb Movement Cambridge University Press Cambridge, U.K 305 350
  4. [40]WIIG E SECORD W SEMEL E 2006 Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool – Second Edition, Australian and New Zealand Standardised Edition (CELF P-2 Australian and New Zealand) Sydney, NSW Pearson
  5. [41]ZIMMERMAN I STEINER V POND R 2002 Preschool Language Scale, Fourth Edition (PLS-4) Australian Language Adapted Sydney, NSW Pearson

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Authors
Tomas, E., Demuth, K., Smith‐Lock, K. M., & Petocz, P.
Affiliations
  • ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (AU)
  • Macquarie University (AU)
Corresponding author
Tomas, Ekaterina
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-02-19
Volume
50
Issue
4
Pages
516-528
ISSN
  • 1368-2822 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-6984
DOI
10.1111/1460-6984.12152
PMC
PMC4496274
OpenAlex
W1939841050
Cited by
67
References
36
Citations by year
2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1
FWCI
8.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council (CE110001021)
  • Australian Research Council (DP110102479)
  • National Institute for Health Research (R01 HD057606)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Keywords
specific language impairment, morphophonology, syllabicity, allomorphs, verb morphology, third person singular -s, possessive 's, phonological complexity, voicing, utterance position, grammatical development, children, individual differences
MeSH terms
Articulation Disorders, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Language Development Disorders, Language Therapy, Male, Phonetics, Psychoacoustics, Psycholinguistics, Semantics, Treatment Outcome

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